


Vying for Affection

by Madzie2000



Category: Jane and the Dragon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:33:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27419602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madzie2000/pseuds/Madzie2000
Summary: Jane is attending Pepper and Rake's wedding, where she may learn things about two boys in her life who she learns had been vying for her affection.You choose which ending is right, not me. I just write them.
Relationships: Gunther Breech/Jane Turnkey, Jester/Jane Turnkey
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. A Simple Wedding

Jane had been waiting for Pepper to marry Rake since he’d given her flowers when they were still ten and two, while Rake was ten and four. Sitting beside her friend in a saffron gown, Jane had been seated with Sir Gunther. Like Rake, Gunther had grown tall and muscular, but hadn’t quite gotten as tall as the gardener. Rake stood at least six feet, four inches while Gunther and the other men were just over six feet tall. Now the young women were close to twenty, and Rake towered over them all. Jane had been watching with more than a little eagerness as the boy’s hair grew long – so much so that Jester began tying his up under neath his hat – which led to strange nicknames. Smithy became Golden Locked-Smith, which Jester had been immensely proud of. When he cut it off, Jester started calling him Gold-Smithy. Gunther, however, was wholly different. His father had removed him from the castle for a time, studying with Sir Ivon until they returned to Kippernium. His long, black hair earnt him the nickname Raven of Kippernia, on the battlefield. Jane, with her long braid of fiery orange, earnt the title Flame of Kippernia.

Her gown for the evening matched her well, as did Gunther’s deep black leather breeches, boots and silver armour. She wanted to wear her newest tunic, but decided against it. Jane was attending a close friend’s wedding, after all. Though she had been in the castle all her life, Jane was yet to find out what Jester’s real name was. Smithy seemed to know it, because the instant he made mention of love or lovers, Smithy began taunting him.

‘That’s a little close to home, don’t you think, _Jester_?’ Smithy said after a risqué joke about women and vegetables passed the Fool’s lips.

‘I beg your pardon?’ Jester said as he stood in front of Pepper, seemingly shielding her form shame. ‘She’s a virtuous cook, not a wanton lady of the night!’

Smithy and the people around them laugh, including the blushing bride and groom.

‘Jester, you know what I mean! Sorry about that, Pepper.’

‘It’s fine, Smithy! Being in a kitchen, you hear all sorts of silly things like that.’

Jane was sat with Gunther and the other nights near her childhood friend, only a short distance from where Jester stood.

‘Now, I had been planning on keeping this secret all my days,’ Jester said as he turned to glance along the table. ‘But, as my wedding gift cannot just be embarrassing poor Pepper, I have something far better!’

Pepper clapped and said, ‘Oh, what is it, Jester?’

‘I’m only telling the two of you my _real_ name.’

Jester walked toward the bride and groom, whispering a name to an ear from each. Rake and Pepper slowly sat back, chuckling.

‘How sweet! Your name fits today perfectly, Jester!’

‘It sounds quite elegant, too,’ Rake added. ‘Like Wysteria.’

‘Too bad you couldn’t name your first baby after him,’ Gunther said as he swept his hair from his eyes.

Pepper smiled and Jester moved to take his seat at the far side of the table, beside Gunther.

‘How goes the knighting, Lord Breech and Lady Turnkey?’

‘Fine,’ Jane and Gunther said with pleasant smiles.

‘Well, we’ve definitely learnt to work together far better since we were children,’ Gunther said as he clapped a hand to Jane’s shoulder. ‘Jane’s as good as any male knight.’

Jane brushed off Gunther’s hand and said, ‘Someone learnt humility.’

Gunther smiled and held a hand out to her.

‘Does humility earn me the first dance with you?’ he said, glancing at Jester. ‘Or should it go to the Fool, beside me?’


	2. Dance with Jester

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane chooses to decline Gunther's offer and dances with her old friend instead... but what will she do that jeopardizes her future as a knight?

With an apologetic smile, Jane placed her hands over Gunther’s and said, ‘I think we can dance another night, Gunther. Jester?’

Jester sat up a little taller and said, ‘I’ll be right back – the musicians have me covered for the rest of the night! Wait for me, Jane.’

Jane, who had begun to stand to take a place on the floor with some other guests, sat back down beside her rejected knight.

‘Jane, do you hate me?’ Gunther asked.

‘Me, hate something? The only thing I really hate is wearing this dress…’

Gunther chuckled as a young man walked into the room, hair hanging at his shoulders as Gunther’s had when they were all children. He wore a plain white tunic under a familiar shade of blue.

‘Jane, are you seeing what I’m seeing?’

‘And what would that be, Sir Gunther?’

Jane’s eyes met with long, straw-blonde hair and she felt her face soften.

‘The Jester out of his Fool’s clothes… just to dance with you.’

Jane and Gunther gave each other a look, that spoke of the unfamiliar state they’d found their beloved Fool in, yet they were somehow proud.

‘Before I make a Fool of myself, shall we drink in Sir Theodore’s memory?’ Jane asked the knight beside her.

Gunther smiled and said, ‘Let one Fool wait while another Fool drinks!’ he said with a wink.

And so, with a swift toast to the memory of the departed Sir Theodore, Jane gulped down her wine and moved toward her dance partner, blue as the sky.

‘The clothes are a deal plainer than the ones you usually wear… Jester,’ Jane whispered behind her friend.

The Jester turned and jumped back a little.

‘Oh, yes, well, that happens when you bathe well enough,’ the Jester said as the other people on the floor took their places to dance.

Jester held out a hand and said, ‘Will you dance with The Fool, Lady Turnkey?’

‘That depends,’ Jane said as she stood before him and the musicians began to play.

As she passed him, weaving around him like the other women did with their partners, she asked him, ‘What is your real name?’

With a clap, Jester moved with the other men, strangely elegant despite his usually clumsy physical comedy.

When they pressed their hands together and walked behind the couple in front of them, he said, ‘Jane, it’s very embarrassing to say it here.’

‘And so is dancing and dresses and womanly things, but here I am,’ she said stubbornly. ‘You are being more foolish than usual.’

Jester took a little pride as he danced around her, saying, ‘Oh, cruel words form a Lady-night!’

Jane heard the music speed up, and as they held hands to twirl in a circle, he leant in close to whisper, ‘Valentine.’

Jane smiled wide and said, ‘After the Saint? Really?’

The Fool nodded and they picked up the pace, dancing up a storm with the guests and newly married couple only a few steps behind them. Pepper said something indistinguishable, but Jane didn’t care. For once, she enjoyed dancing… with Valentine.

Just thinking his name felt strange, but she couldn’t push herself to use it. Not in front of so many people, either. Just as she tried to figure out why she was now privy to Jester’s real name, people began stumbling and losing their place in the dance, slowly bowing out as they lost their sense of good timing.

Jane and Jester, however, seemed as if they would be able to dance forever. She had the footwork of a knight and he had the deft physicality of the greatest Jester she’d ever known. As the musicians tried for a newer, faster pace, he lifted Jane into his arms and spun around a few times. For a moment, she saw the joy in his eyes and the wide smile that their time together had brought about.

So, in full view of the crowd, Jane leant forward in her Jester’s arms and kissed him. There were gasps and murmurs as Jane was placed on her feet and abandoned on the dancefloor. Her lips felt like they were still pressed to the Jester’s, but now they were cold and lonely.

‘Oh dear…’ Pepper said as she walked toward Jane.

‘I’ll be in my room if anyone needs me,’ Jane said as she walked brusquely from the festivities.

She tiptoed through the throng of peasants, friends and family toward her room on the edge of the castle. Something landed beside her.

‘Jane? What are you doing out here, all alone?’

Jane sat between two stones on the battlement and huffed, ‘I made a Fool of myself with Jester.’

Dragon stretched out along the wall and said, ‘How? Did you tell a better joke than him?’

‘No, Dragon,’ she said dejectedly. ‘I kissed him.’

Dragon out a hand to his over-sized heart and toppled over the castle wall, feigning death with a great thud.

‘You did WHAT?!’ the giant lizard screeched. ‘I knew you liked him, but not _that_ much!’

‘Oh Dragon, I’ve loved him since we were young, but I didn’t mean to do something so stupid.’ 

Dragon took his perch back up on the wall and said softly, ‘Do you regret it? Kissing your Valentine?’

Jane was about to tell him “No”, when the realisation hit her.

‘You knew Jester’s real name?’

‘Of course, I do – I boiled the water he cleaned himself with to take you dancing!’

For a moment, Jane wondered what kind of figure was hidden beneath the Jester’s long sleeves and sky-blue hat. Realising the dishonourable way she was thinking about him, Jane caught herself and bid Dragon goodnight.

‘Goodnight, short-life.’

*

As Jane pulled her nightdress over her head, someone tapped on her bedroom door.

‘Um, Jane?’

Under her breath, Jane whispered, ‘Maggots!’

‘It’s me, Jes – ’

Outside, Jester heaved a heavy sigh.

‘She’s probably sleeping Jester!’

Jane tried not to run to the door, and opened it slowly.

‘I’m awake, Valentine.’

The name was strange to her ears and lips, but the colour that rose in the Jester’s cheeks told her he wasn’t unhappy to hear it.

‘So, what brings you out to my chamber this late at night?’

A few choice descriptions ran through her mind, but the Jester simply took her hand and kissed it.

‘To, talk, I suppose.’

He seemed jittery, but she let him in on chivalry alone. Jester entered her room and sat on the chest at the end of her bed, while she took up her bed.

‘I’m sorry I kissed you at the reception,’ Jane said quickly. ‘I should’ve kept myself in propriety and – ’

Without a moments notice, Jester stood up and said, ‘No.’

When Jane looked at him incredulously, he sat beside her, very quietly, and said, ‘No, Jane. If you did that, you wouldn’t be _you_ anymore.’

‘And when you’re serious, Valentine, you’re not you, either.’

He fidgeted a little and looked to his feet, then took her hands.

‘Jane, could you do something for me?’

Though her face felt warm, Jane nodded. Her heart was aflutter as her Jester – her Valentine – held her gaze, then held her face still.

His grey eyes scanned her face as he asked, ‘Tell me how this makes you feel.’

And suddenly, she was at the wedding festivities again, her lips pressed to Valentine’s. His hands came to rest deftly on her neck and she shivered as his tongue brushed her lower lip. She let it tantalise her until she dove in with her own. Valentine let one hand rest at the base of her neck, while the other brushed the neck of her nightdress.

Jane sat back and said, ‘Would you like an answer, or are we going to move past courting to the wedding night?’

The Jester blushed, lungs seeming not to have enough space to keep him alive.

‘If you think I’m too forward, I’ll leave right now, if you like,’ he said in a rush.

‘No, I just… I didn’t take you for a seducer.’

‘Well, if you’re okay with me being a seducer, might I treat you to a midnight fancy?’

Valentine wiggled his eyebrows and Jane laughed, but the devilish smirk on the Jester’s face didn’t remove her smile. With a beckoning finger, the Jester came to her, kissing her fully as he sat on his knees between her thighs. His tongue fighting with hers set her skin on fire, made her feel as alive as a fight on the battle-field. A roaming hand touched her breast, while his lips fastened to a small patch of skin on her neck.

Jane gave a little gasp of surprise as the pain was transported into something far less unusual, more sensual. The pulling she felt at her neck was ticklish, yet it thrilled her to know it was her handsome Jester, treating her to the pleasures of a wife.

‘Valentine?’ she said, voice soft with breathlessness.

He pressed a kiss to the spot on her he’d marked with his lips and tongue, tending to it like Rake with his garden, or Pepper with her pastries.

‘Is something wrong?’ he asked, equally flushed and breathless.

‘I think you have entirely too many clothes on.’

‘Oh’, was his weak reply.

With sudden conscientiousness, the Jester untucked his tunic from his trousers, and slowly pulled it over his head. She caught a flash of skin and muscle beneath the white undershirt, which drew her hands toward Valentine’s waist, unconsciously. She tugged on the shirt and brought him close to her, their breath mingling in the frigid night air.

‘Jane, what’s wrong?’

She didn’t answer. Instead, she ran her hands up his ribs and felt muscle and bone beneath them. The shirt moved high on his chest and Valentine lifted his arms so Jane could remove it. The sight of his fair skin and chest warmed her face, and Valentine placed his hands on her shoulders.

‘May I?’

Jane nodded eagerly, letting Valentine’s hands run along her arm, pulling her thin, white nightdress down her chest. Her bindings lay beneath, but she wanted the joy of removing them to be her Jester’s, alone. Valentine let his eyes fall on her breasts, hands breaching the band with a glint in his eye. He pulled on them, but didn’t keep his eyes with his hands for very long.

‘Why are you looking away?’

Jane’s hair fell over her naked shoulder and partially covered her chest as she tilted her head to one side.

‘Just catching my breath,’ he offered, the mysterious air replaced with clear-cut nervousness.

‘If something’s wrong, you can tell me.’

With a heavy sigh, Valentine pulled Jane, half-naked, into his lap. Something was jabbing at her thigh.

‘Is that a dagger?’

‘Jane, it’s a very personal dagger.’

‘How personal?’ she asked, unsure of herself.

‘The kind that only pierces women.’

Jane laughed, but then she shivered.

‘Oh, _that one_.’

The Jester laughed, but held her close to himself.

‘I just need a moment to gather myself,’ he said into the crook of her neck. ‘Perhaps I should leave your maidenhead intact.’

Jane glanced down at the simple laces on the breeches and her heart felt as if it would leap form her chest. Not waiting for another person to question her, not even herself, Jane let her hands work slowly at the laces.

‘Jane, wait…’

‘I’ve known for a while that you feel something for me,’ she said as she sat up on her knees, undoing the last of the laces. ‘I don’t want to stop either – I’ll always have the stain of womanhood on me, so what’s one more?’

‘Jane, don’t say that!’

‘Hush.’

Her hand took hold of something warm and the Jester was deathly silent. He didn’t move, but his eyes shut and a small breath of air left him. She tested his mettle and moved her hand, which made what she held twitch and… pulse?

‘Jane, think about this for a moment, please.’

Her Valentine sounded sad.

‘If you sully your name as a knight, with me…’

‘It’ll be the sweetest thing in the world. What more do you need to hear, Jester?’

‘You mean it?’ he asked as she sat high over his lap.

‘What we do tonight is worth a thousand ballads in my honour.’

And with those words, she brought herself the courage to slowly lower herself down onto something that felt warm and made her body stretch and ache in delicious ways. The Jester was clawing at her back, almost shaking with the sensation of it.

‘Oh, Jane.’

‘Valentine.’

‘I’ll be writing the filthiest sonnets after tonight…’ he whispered into her hair. ‘All of them will be about you.’

She felt him thrust upward and it stung a little, but the pain was temporary. The wave of calm that spread through her as his lips found more of her neck to bite and suck at made her feel safe. Safe in the arms of a Fool. He was slow and careful at first, barely moving as she let the fulness of him rest somewhere in her stomach. The pain she’d been told about as a young woman was markedly absent, so she put it down to the Jester’s sweet seduction. Now he held her hips and rolled up into her with a little less caution, but increasing care. His arms moved round her back and he held her against his chest, lips pulling at her pulse. Something was moving through Jane’s stomach, making it clamp and causing her favourite Jester to sweat and moan, low in his throat.

‘Jane, Jane, Jane…’ was all he whispered as he carefully lowered her onto the bed and drove into her, making her body shake and shiver in waves.

Her body clamped around him and they were whispering in the cool night air, breathless as they’d begun their little venture. The warmth between Jane’s thighs should worry her, but for now, she was content to lay their in her Jester’s arms, sated by simply being with him. Valentine pulled the blankets up and over them, smiling as he held her to his chest.

‘I think I’ve figured out how to begin your little ballad, Lady Turnkey.’

‘Really?’

‘I think it should start with, _There once was a Lady-in-waiting… let’s call her Jane._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> Binged this series after years of going without and I had to add this to the small fandom we've all created across Canada, Australia and New Zealand.


End file.
